Magic Academy Slave Team
Hope is in sight.
I, too, have become optimistic about survival.
That's because the synergy between 10 points of Wisdom and the turn-based Hourglass of Sand was far better than I had expected.
The fact that I could always secure the initiative, and that my destructive power was—by the standards of the first floor of the labyrinth—almost always a one-shot kill, worked in my favor to a surprising degree.
Do you remember the moment when I first burned two goblins to death with Fireball?
At the time, my turn still had one action point remaining, but it ended together with the Fireball incantation.
So there were two possibilities.
First. Casting magic consumes action points.
Second. Casting magic consumes the turn itself.
As expected, the answer was the first.
[It is your turn.]
[Action Points: ■■■■]
"Fireball."
[Action Points: ■■■□]
When I tried using Fireball again, exactly one action point was consumed.
With Fireball held at the tip of the wand like a bead of dew, it was still my turn.
Even in the game, all Tier-1 spells consume one action point, and as long as action points remain, the turn is maintained.
[It is your turn.]
Then can I cast another spell in this state?
I can.
[Fireball Cooldown: 5 seconds]
As long as I wait for this cooldown to pass.
The hourglass grants 60 seconds per turn, so after waiting five of those seconds—
"Fireball."
I activated a second Fireball.
'It gets pushed.'
The first Fireball moved about ten centimeters forward toward the goblin in front, and in the spot it had originally occupied, a new flame bloomed and latched onto the tip of the wand.
[Action Points: ■■□□]
Another action point was consumed.
'Theoretically, I could fire four Fireballs in a single turn.'
But realistically, there's almost never a situation where I'd fire four shots. Because aiming also consumes action points.
When my neck was almost severed by a goblin's sword earlier, I had tried to block it with my wand—then gave up. Even moving my arm three centimeters cost me an entire action point.
Physical movement consumes an extreme amount of action points.
In other words, if the two goblins are fairly far apart like they are now, I'd lose all my action points just rotating my wrist to adjust the wand's tip.
Therefore…
"Ice Spike."
I decided to hold a wand in my left hand as well. The fanatic's wand.
[Action Points: ■□□□]
This way, I could assign spells to both goblins and still have action points left.
I moved my body to end the turn.
[All action points have been consumed.]
[Ending the turn.]
When time begins to flow again, the two suddenly summoned fireballs and the ice spike put on a magical show of fire and ice.
Boom! Kaboom!
Shields go flying, goblins burn, and others are skewered into icy kebabs.
The hourglass is the best.
"Caleb, you must have a rapid-casting talent."
Yer-nil said as she picked up magic stones from the goblins' corpses.
"What's that?"
I asked because I genuinely didn't know. That concept didn't exist when I played the game.
"Rapid casting means the delay time between casting one spell and the next is very short. Extremely talented mages sometimes do it unconsciously when they concentrate really hard."
"Really?"
"And you also seem to have the talent to cast without incantations. Usually, having even one of those talents puts you in the top 0.1 percent, but you have two at once."
"..."
I had become a talent monster without meaning to. In reality, I had just dealt with everything during my turn.
"That's why dual-wielding wands suits you so well, Caleb."
According to her, dual-wielding wands is extremely difficult, and only mages called geniuses ever use that style.
Even by my own knowledge, she wasn't wrong. Even in the game, mages who used dual wands were almost nonexistent.
They were extremely rare among NPCs, and completely nonexistent among players.
Why?
Because mages are notoriously fragile, so the standard builds were either wand plus shield to shore up defense, or a two-handed staff for better close-range 대응.
However, starting from the penance difficulty, I truly felt that limit.
That's why I developed the dual-wand build. You double-dip on the critical hit increase and Wisdom increase attached to wands, pushing attack power to the extreme.
You become the frailest of the frail—but you push forward with the mindset of killing everything before it can hit you.
Even now that the game has become reality, it's the same.
If I don't cast as many spells as possible within a single turn and kill everything, I die.
So I have no choice but to use dual wands.
"Um, maybe… could I use this shield?"
Yer-nil pointed at a goblin shield.
She had no interest in a crazed build like dual-wielding wands. It seemed she wanted to proceed more safely by holding a shield in one hand.
"No."
But a shield wasn't appropriate for her.
"W-why not…?"
Yer-nil looked a little flustered by the unexpected answer.
The reason was simple: her Strength was too low.
Even if she used a shield, there was a high chance she wouldn't be able to endure a single hit and would go flying together with the shield.
How did I know that?
'Because it took her forever just to bring the orc barrel.'
Judging by the distance and time, when she carried the barrel, she was probably—in game terms—'Overweight.'
Therefore, her Strength is below 3 points.
Then what about her other stats?
Let's check while we're at it.
"Yer-nil. Try using Lightning Shock on the wall."
Kraaaack!
The lightning that burst from the wand was pathetically weak.
Her Wisdom is at best 1 or 2 points. Possibly even 0.
That leaves Agility, Vitality, and Dexterity.
"Yer-nil, can you jump?"
I asked a question that made me sound a bit stupid.
"Jump? Well, of course… I can jump."
"As high as you can."
"As high as I can…"
Yer-nil looked up at the ceiling.
"I don't think I can do it here."
"?"
"The ceiling's too low. I think I'd hit my head…"
The ceiling is about three meters high.
She'd hit her head there with a standing vertical jump?
Wait a second.
"How many meters can you jump?"
"When I was in the Fairy Forest, jumping up into trees, about…"
She narrowed her eyes, thinking.
"Four meters? I think."
That settles it.
Strength below 3, Wisdom below 1. Agility is at least 5 or higher.
Then her position needs to be redefined.
"Yer-nil."
I handed her the goblin archer's bow and arrows—the ones from the goblin that died to Ice Spike.
"Try using these."
Yer-nil slung the quiver strap over her shoulder and took the bow in hand.
"Use this too."
Next, I handed her the goblin rogue's dagger I'd picked up earlier as a secondary weapon. Yer-nil tucked it between her belt and her pants.
She now looked like an awkward ranger. Far better than a mage.
"I'll use the Lightning Shock wand."
I took the wand back from her.
With that, I ended up becoming a wand collector who had gathered up all four wands belonging to our party members.
If I collect just one more, I might even be able to turn into Thanos and do a finger snap.
As I tucked the wands into my belt, Yer-nil spoke.
"Honestly, I'm more comfortable with a bow."
Yer-nil said.
"Really?"
"I used it sometimes back in the Fairy Forest."
So that's why she so readily accepted the bow and dagger I handed her.
Then why did she say she wanted to carry a shield at first?
"Well… they say that if you use weapons other than a wand, then even if you escape, the Magic Academy will say you're useless and sell you off somewhere weird…"
"Anywhere would be better than the labyrinth."
"That's true. But there's another reason."
She continued.
"What is it?"
"I don't really know, but… doesn't someone need to carry a shield? They say a tanker is essential for labyrinth exploration."
You're admirable, Yer-nil.
You're confident as a ranged damage dealer, started as a mage, and yet you're willing to tank with your own body?
"I thought I should buy time until Caleb finishes casting spells…"
"But right now, we don't need a tank."
I refused her self-sacrifice (?).
There were two main reasons.
First, by the standards of the first floor of the labyrinth, a mage with 10 points of Wisdom can one-shot most field mobs.
Second, the hourglass cuts off most ambushes and lets me secure the initiative.
Of course, if we were attacked from behind, we'd be in trouble—but that's something Yer-nil couldn't handle even with a shield.
So rather than that, it's better to increase our ranged firepower and suppress enemies before they can close the distance.
"Let's go."
Another slave team from the Magic Academy.
They are generally dangerous.
Most of them were thrown into the labyrinth without any preparation, so the majority either die or give up within the first few hours. Recall how Yer-nil collapsed earlier.
Once that phase passes and it reaches this point, usually only rage remains, and they start snarling at everything.
On top of that, they were criminals to begin with. Just like Yer-nil was a drug offender (?).
So of course they're dangerous.
Four and a half hours since entering the first floor of the labyrinth.
"..."
Yer-nil and I were facing off against one slave team.
Four human men.
They were armed with the Magic Academy-issued wands, goblin swords and shields, and one of them even had a bow.
Keeping a distance of about ten meters, both sides stayed on guard while slowly moving in opposite directions.
My palms were slick with sweat as I gripped the wands.
If I raised my weapon first, they'd feel threatened and attack, so I kept them lowered—but my wrists stayed tense, ready to lift them at any moment.
"Don't take your eyes off them."
Like the method for dealing with a wild beast when you encounter one while climbing a mountain, we stared each other down and slowly sidestepped and backed away.
Once we were far enough apart, the tension gradually eased.
As they moved away, the men kept glancing at us and whispering among themselves.
"Let's hurry."
I wanted to put as much distance as possible between us and them.
And about forty minutes later, after moving together with Yer-nil—
"Caleb."
Yer-nil called out to me, her expression anxious.
"I think those men from earlier are following us."
"What?"
"I can hear their footsteps. I think they changed direction midway. They're chasing us."
"..."
I couldn't hear anything at all.
Of course, this game has a setting where hearing differs depending on the Agility stat, but still—this seems excessive.
"Yer-nil. Close your eyes."
When she did, I picked up three stones and threw them behind her back.
Tap tap!
"Do you know how many stones fell?"
"Three?"
"..."
No doubt about it.
Yer-nil has a special ability: Sound Mapping. The ability to determine a target's position or movement by sound.
Then her claim that the slave team was following us is highly likely to be true.
Damn it.
I knew something felt off about those bastards.
"If we get flanked while dealing with monsters, it'll be really dangerous. Let's settle this now instead."
I turned back in the opposite direction with Yer-nil.
"Follow me."
I had already spotted suitable terrain just ahead.
A wide space about ten meters across, with two large pillars.
At the entrance where the enemies would come charging in after us, the ground was slightly sunken, with water pooled there.
The water level was only about twenty centimeters—a small puddle at best.
"Wait until they come in there. Hide behind the pillars."
We hid together and lay in ambush for a short while.
Step. Step.
Now even I could hear their footsteps.
Yer-nil was so tense she could barely breathe. Honestly, I was probably the same.
'They're here.'
Soon, the men appeared in the corridor.
They hesitated for a moment, then began wading in with splashes.
At that timing, I sprang out.
"Stop!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs. I aimed both wands like dual pistols, and Yer-nil nocked an arrow.
They raised two shields up front while those in the back aimed arrows and wands.
"Why are you following us?"
When other slave teams cause trouble, it's usually because of food.
They try to kill other parties to steal the boiled potatoes the Magic Academy hands out as "rations."
But when we first saw them, their potato sacks were already bulging. They wouldn't risk their lives attacking another party just for food.
Could they just be psychopathic murderers?
Not impossible—but if so, would they really have gone this long without killing each other first?
Then there's only one possibility left.
"Hey."
The bald man behind the shields spoke.
"Hand over that elf bitch."
"...!"
Yer-nil flinched violently.
I knew it.
When humans are driven into extreme stress and despair, they tend to seek comfort in base stimulation.
Especially in a lawless, morality-free labyrinth—and especially when they're not proper adventurers, but a team of criminal slaves—there's no need for further explanation.
"Hand her over, and I'll let you live."
The bald man threatened us.